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THE SLAVE-CATCHER 



E 449 
.R18 
Copy 1 



CAUGHT 



AW, 



, 



BY AS A RAND, 



MINISTER OK THE GOSPEL. 



" Amonjj my people are found wicked m?ru; they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; 
they set a trap ; they catch men."— J tin. 5: 26. 

T I ■ heathen are ««ak down in the pit that they made ; In the net which they hid, is 
their own foot taken."— Psalm 9: 15. 



CLEVELAND : 

to 

8XKAM-PRK S3 OK SMKAD AND COWLIS. 

1S5'2. 






Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1852, by 

ASA RAND, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the District of Ohio. 



INTRODUCTION 



This Tract contains an inquiry into the relatione of the Federal Govern- 
ment to slave-holding, and to slave-catching in the Vrrr Stiles. The 
writer aims to examine and expose the unconstitutional and atrocious char- 
acter of "the fugitive slave acts," so called, together with ihoee judicial 
decisions and interpretations of the Constitution which arc adduced in their 
support. 

Are those acts just, and obligatory upon all? Are they to be established 
as a righteous and "final adjustment" of conflicting opinions and intercsis, 
and to be rigorously enforced by all the authority and power of this great 
nation? Is there a stable basis for the dogmas which are given forth 
from the legislative hall, the bench, the press, and the pulpit, concerning 
"compromises, a solemn compact, and constitutional guaranties " of slave- 
holding? Are citizens of Free States bound, in all good conscience, to sanc- 
tion and aid oppression? to hunt and surrender fugitives, guilty of no 
crime? Is it "spurious philanthropy and genuine bigotry," — is it " hypoc- 
risy and baseness," — is it "sedition and treason," *to refuse voluntary 
obedience to a law which tramples in the dust the inalienable rights of 
man? 

Intelligent and law abiding citizens are accused of a wicked attempt to 
"triumph over and trample under foot all that is sacred and valuable in a 
government'of law," *when they calmly and respectfully declare their pur- 
pose to obey God rather than man. We inquire, therefore, is the law 
righteous, and conformable to the Constitution; or is it a praise to evil- 
doers, and a terror to them that do well? That is the issue, to be tried 
before the people, and by the people of the United States. They will em- 
ploy their inalienable right, to prove every act of their rulers and judges, 
" whether it be pure and whether it be right." And they will acknow- 
ledge no supremo, final, immutable law, but that of Him whoso kingdom 
ruleth over all. 



* Quotations from Ex-?e:iator Dickinson, of N wYoik. 



These acts demand thorough investigation by all classes, not only for 
the sake of fugitive slaves and the millions in bonds, nor yet for the fake 
of freedom, and freemen in Free States: but also for the purpnse of under- 
standing' and exposing the true nature and genius, the character and bear- 
ings of this who'e system and practice of slavenolding. The provisions of 
tiese acts a.e obviously a fair exponent of the system: and they are thrust 
before the Free States by the slaveocracy itself, aided by the authority of 
the general government. We are compelled to inquire and decide. We 
must either fall down and worship the idol, or renounce it and return to 
the worship and fear of Jehovah. 

This Tract is designed to present the subject in a plain manner to the 
common mind, divested of technical and legal terms.so that he who runs 
may rea ), and every citizen may study his duty in reference to that legal 
despotism which is sweeping over the whole land. 



THE SLAVE CATCH Ell CAUGHT 

in rns 
MESHES OF ETERNAL LAW. 



CHAPTER I. 



Preliminary Remarks. Personal Freedom. Slavery. Right' 
eous Civil Government. Subjection and Us Limitation*. 

Freedom in a Free Stale. Freedom in a Slave State. 



Our Creator endows every human being- in social life with free- 
dom and all personal rights, equally with every other. 

Every righteous civil government derives its just powers from 
the consent of the governed. 

In forming a civil government, individuals do not relinquish 
one of their natural rights; but put them under the protection 
of the State. The State does not confer rights, or take them 
away ; but pledges protection equally to all the subjects, and 
punishes only the lawless and injurious. 

In civil society, therefore, a freeman has his right to life, to liber- 
ty, and to the pursuit of happiness without human dictation or control. 
All arc equal in lights before the laws. Even the vilest malefa 
are protected against injustice, cruelty and oppression. 

Our national government is bas< d on the moral Jaw, and on 
ihose self-evident truths, concerning human rights, which our 
fathers proclaimed t<> the world in tin: day of their peril; truths, 
-which their descendants have fearfully set at nought in th.' limeo' 
their unexampled prosperity. 



6 THE SLAVE CATCHER CAt/GHT 

All political rights and duties are based on moral principle. 
Rulers and subjects are equally under law to God in their several 
stations and relations. Even the unanimous consent of a -whole 
people cannot make that right which is morally wrong. 

A constitution liberal and |ust in the main, which contains one 
provision conflicting with the law of God, is at war with itself. A 
law to carry into effect such a provision, is constitutional, literally 
but is doubly unjust. 

Whenever a government or nation sacrifices moral principle to 
"great national interests," it becomes unjust and wicked. 

One evil deed can never justify another. The doctrine of prece- 
dents, therefore, applied to the unrighteous deeds of a people, is 
wicked and dangerous; leading them to perpetuate the greatest 
abuses and wrongs, and " increase unto more ungodliness." 

A Slave is a human being held by another as property, as a 
beast, as a chattel personal, subject to the absolute command and 
control of his " owner." He cannot hold property, enjoy the family 
relations, or learn and do his Maker's will, except as he is per- 
mitted by the arbitrary will of his " master." 

Slavery, being a compulsory deprivation of all rights, is the greatest 
wrong one man can possibly inflict on another living man. 

Slaveholding is practised either with or without the sanction of 
civil laws; sustained, in either case, by might alone, contrary to all 
right. 

That government which legalizes the enslaving or re-enslaving 
of unoffending; men, practises the most flagrant political despotism. 
If our national constitution or laws sanction slaveholding in any 
way, that action corru ts the government and people, and threat- 
ens the subversion of our liberties and free institutions. It is there- 
fore the imperious duty of every citizen thoioughly to investigate 
this subject. " Eternal vigilance is the security of freedom." 

Slaveholding, or legalized oppression, is, strictly a local or ?nuni- 
cipal institution. No State of this Union can impose it upon ano- 
ther. The States cannot impose it upon the Union, nor the Union 
Union, upon one or all of the States. Of the States, some are 



m The meshes of eternal law* 

slavehokling, and others free. The difference between them should 
be clearly understood. 

In a Free State, every human being has personal freedom under 
its constitution and laws, unless it has been forfeited by personal 
crime. AU are entitled to liberty and protection; natives, immi- 
grants, travelers, men of every color, kindred and condition. Some 
classes are deprived of the elective franchise; but all have personal 
freedom. A liberal constitution, faithfully carried out, would for- 
ever exclude slavehokling; or abolish the practice where it had ex- 
isted, as it has done in England, and in s^ven of the thirteen origin- 
al states of this confederacy. 

In a Slavehokling State, one class of the people are free as in 
the Free States. Another class are held as slaves, as property, as 
chattels, and are practically deprived of all their natural rights. 
Yet, strange to say, the constitutions, even of the Slave States, as- 
sert in general terms the equality of human rights, and none of 
them expressly establish Slavery, or even define it. But they limit 
governmental protection to the favored class, and tolerate the prac- 
tice of holding slaves. There, public sentiment and judicial courts 
allow the slaveholder to seize and recapture his escaping slaves 
wherever he can find them. 

In a Free State, a colored person, even a fugitive, escaped from 
the house of bondage, is, by the constitution and laws of that State, 
as free as its governor or chief justice. He has all his natural rights, 
is protected by law as a freeman, and one that enslaves or re-en- 
slaves him is accounted a kidnapper, or man-stealer. By escaping 
he has reclaimed his freedom and rights from the robbers; and no 
man may hinder his flight, or betray him to his pursuers. If he 
becomes an idle vagabond, he is liable to be put to labor for his own 
support. 

In a Slave State, the child of a female slave is regarded as a 
chattel, a beast, property. He is deprived of every right, but life 
and has no legal protection. Escaping, he is deemed guilty of 
robbing his "owner" unpardonablv. Any man may seize and 
return him, and civil officers are required to do it. One that helps 



8 The slave- catcher caught 

him to escape from slavery is punished as a kidnapper. A fugitive 
refusing to return and eluding pursuit, may be legally proclaimed 
an out-!a\v, and shot down like a wild beast. 

Now, by every fair principle, s}a\'e-catching is to be confined to 
the jurisdiction of the State which tolerates slave-holding. By the 
constitution and laws of a Free State, every human being in it is 
protected as a freeman. Therefore, a slaveholder cannot capture 
his fugitives in a Free State, unless the nation re- enslaves them. 
Has the nation undertaken this? Shall the sixteen Free States be 
open hunting ground to man-stealers, and the federal government 
become the most despotic on earth? 

CHAPTER II. 



Personal Freedom under the Federal Constitution and National 
Jurisdiction. JVo Sluveholdiii<i there allowed. 



The Federal Constitution is based on the moral law ; on the 
doctrine of human rights, equal and universal. It is as free and 
libera] in its fundamental principles, as is that of Massachusetts, 
or any other free state. 

The preamble thus declares the objects and purposes of the 
government to be established : — " We, the people of the United 
States, in or^er to form a more pe feet union, establish justice, en- 
sure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote 
the general welfare and secure to ourselves and our posterity the 
blessings of liberty, do ordain and establish this Constitution for 
the United States of America." 

The first ten Articles of the " Amendments," and several 
others, are explicit safeguards of personal freedom, and of the equal 
rights of all " the people of the United States." The States then 
contained a million and a half of " persons " called slaves; but the 
Constitution has not a syllable that excludes them from the number 
of the "people" here intended, or from any of the rights here 
secured to " the people." 



IN THE ME SI IKS OF ETKRNAL LAW. 9 

Tli.se articles and the preamble are tantamount to a "bill of 
rights," and have all the force of such a bill in the Constitution aa 
fully as if a portion of the Constitution had been so entitled. 

The second clause of the sixth article shows ihe supremacy and 
extent of the Federal Constitution. This Constitution, and the laws 
of the United States, which shall be made in pursuance thereof, and 
all treaties made, or which shall he made, under die authority of 
the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the 
judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the con- 
stitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding." 
If there are any articles or clauses, as is pretended, which I 
nise, sanction and protect slave-holding, they are antagonistic to the 
design and objects of the Constitution, and subversive of its funda- 
mei tal principles. They ought, therefore, to be held null and void. 
They 7m<st be rejected, or the whole fabiic will fall into ruin. A 
kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. 

This constitution, in its free spirit, and explicit language, like the 
jubilee trumj et, tfc proclaimed liberty throughout ail the land, to all 
the inhabitants thereof.*' It would have freed ^-wry slave in every 
State, "anything in the constitution or laws of any State t<> the con 
traiy notwithstanding," if it had been carried out legitimately as 
14 the supreme law of the land;" if Congress, and the States, and 
the "judges," and finally the people, bad not first indolently suffer- 
ed the power of the bill of rights to remain inoperative, and then, 
to cover the iniquity, adopted perverse constructions of the funda- 
mental law. 

Other remarks will confirm the position, that every slave in the 
Union A\as, by the letter and spirit of (he Federal Constitution, as 
fully entitled to all human rights, as was George Washington, or 
Thomas Jefferson. 

The Constitution was established by all "the people ;" for all "the 
people;" to " establish justice, and secure the blessings of lib 
to themselves and their posterity," without exception or distinction 
of classes or races. If exception or distinction were intended, it 
must have been made in explicit terms; but it is not in any terms. 



10 The slave-catcher caugh! 

The instrument no where employs the words, slave, slaveholder, 
owner, master, or any other, implying that human beings can be 
held as property, or that such " property " can be secured or recog- 
nised by law. Mr. Madison, a slaveholder, said in convention, it 
would be" wrong to admit in the Constitution the idea that there 
could be property in man." The convention acted accordingly. 
Yet statesmen of our day dare affirm in the face of the nation, that 
" whatever the law declares to be property, is property;'' that this 
is " the only species of property that is protected by the Constitu- 
tion," and that "two hundred years of legislation has sanctioned 
and sanctified negro slaves as property." But the first syllable of 
such a sanction is not found in " the supreme law of the land " It 
no where sanctions the practice, or gives Congress the power to do 
it. 

But it is said, " the power is implied" because there were known 
slaveholdino- interests at that time, of vast extent, and Congress is 
bound to protect the interests of all classes in every section. I re- 
ply, the government is to protect human rights, first, and lawful 
interests, subordinate! </ ; but interests in " the bodies and souls of 
men," never, never. It shall not promote the interests of one classi 
sustained by injustice, extortion and robbery, by utterly sacrificing 
all the interests and all the rights of other men. 

•Ten thousand times have we demanded evidence of the alleged 
" constitutional guarantees of slavery," the " compromises," the 
" solemn compact,'' which are thrust before us every day, and which 
have bound the consciences of our northern representatives in iron 
chains. We say, where is the contract ? How is it written in the 
bond 1 Not a word of pledge has ever been produced. And now 
we are told of" the intentions of the trainers, a tacit consent, a silent 
but general understanding." Oh, folly ! Thus it is that the strong- 
est guarantees of human rights arc brushed away as a spider's web; 
while vested wrongs are "graven as with iron pen in the rock forever," 
and revealed to us by the ghosts of our departed fathers. But we 
have nothing to do with the unwritten intentions of the convention. 
We are bound only by what they penned, and "the people " adopt- 



IX 'filK MBSHS8 OP KTERNAL LAW. 11 

ed. The Constitution is not obscure, neither does it "palter in a 
double sense." Read it; ponder it. You will find it docs not at- 
tempt to ,l establish justice " or to " secure the blessings of liberty " 
by perpetuating slavery, an acknowledged curse. 

It is also confidently asserted, when occasion requires, that tin: 
eontrol of existing slavery was not intrusted With Congress, but 
was "left with the States themselves," within their respective limits. 
Again we ask, where is the agreement or compact to that end ? 
Not in the Constitution, or any public record. It is true, that the 
Constitution of any and every one of the thirteen old states, right- 
eously carried out, would have removed slaveholding from its 
bounds at once;and the Federal Constitution, applied and enforced' 
would have removed it from them all. It is also true, that the States 
have taken action independently of Congress; seven to abolish it; 
and six to perpetuate and secure it, till they defy Congress, the 
North, and the whole Union. Still, the Federal Constitution, though 
inoperative as yet for emancipation, retains its primitive liberal- 
ity. It is " the supreme law of the land," having power ' ; to se- 
cure the blessings of liberty" to all " the people." T lie power re- 
mains; and when the public mind shall be freed from a monstrous 
delusion, all will dechre, that the supreme law is the death-war- 
rant of slavery. Then will they see the daring presumption of 
th'ise statesmen, whether of the highest or the lowest rank, who 
deny to Congress and the courts, power to abolish Slavery where 
it exists, but say they are solemnly hound to sanction and protect it. 

Others, conceding to Congress the constitutional power to abolish 
slavery, especially in United States territories, claim also for them 
the power to establish or introduce it in free territory. Ridiculous- 
ly absurd. A legislature may punish arson, robbery and murder; 
may they also license and reward them? They may protect 
churches in the peaceable exercise of their rights; can they there- 
fore establish a State religion and disfranchise dissenters? Now 
the nation declares the foreign slave-trade to be piracy ; can it th re- 
fore again approve it as a lawful and honorable business! 

We may here remark, in passing, that the bill of rights in the 



12 THE SLAVE-CATCHER CAUGHT 

Federal Constitution has been violated, and the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence trampled on, in many ways, by the national government. 
Congress have done this, either by a sheer usurpation of power, or 
by a perversion of powers given for righteous and constitutional 
purposes. The judicial courts and executive administrations have 
given the same false constructions to the Constitution, while a ma- 
jority of the people have acquiesced. "So they wrap it up " 

But a fair construction of the Federal Constitution, establishes 
these three conclusions : 

First, Wherever the national government has exclusive jurisdic- 
tion, slavery cannot legally exist without a palpable violation of the 
Federal Constitution. 

Second, Within a Free State, where the State and national gov- 
ernments have concurrent jurisdiction, both constitutions secure 
ptrsonal freedom to all the people resident there. 

Third, In a Stave State, also under concurrent jurisdiction, the 
State government sustains slavery, and thus sets at nought " the su. 
preme law of the land." The responsibility is assumed by the 
State; and the Federal Government, by its frequent connivance, is 
partaker in the guilt. Still, the Federal Constitution is innocent of 
the deed. 

There are, then, sixteen of the United States, in which staves 
cannot be held under any existing constitution or law. We must 
next inquire, whether they can be c3nstitutionally caught, where 
they cannot be held. 



CHAPTER III. 



Stave-catching. Moral Principles pertaining to the Business. 



The business of recapturing and returning fugitive slaves, is it 
lawful and right? Many contend that it can be transacted legally 
constitutionally, righteously and devoutly. That freemen are un- 
der solemn obligaiion to do so, as occasion requires. This I deny, 
and shall appeal ''to the law and the testimony." 



IN THE MESHES OP ETERNAL LAW. 13 

First, however, it may be useful to consider the moral character 
of the act itself. 

1. — A slave is a man, a human being. By our national law 
and the laws of God, he has an equal right to liberty wiih his en- 
slaver. Every man that has a soul will admit this; and they that 
have none cannot be reasoned with. 

2. — All sober slaveholders admit, that men are made and kept 
slaves " by might without right." 

3. — Every slave has an inalienable moral right to his freedom, 
whatever earthly power may wrest it from him. lie has, therefore, 
a perfect right to take his freedom by flight. 

4. — He owes his master nothing; no love, or thanks, or obed- 
ience, or service; nothing, but to let him live, and repent, and 
make what poor restitution he can to the injured. 

5. — He is under no obligation to the State to remain in bondage- 
He owes no allegiance in any form to the State or nation, which 
has never protected his rights, but has aided his " master " in rob- 
bing and oppressing him. 

6. — No human being or civil power can possibly have a moral 
right to originate, or continue, or renew the enslavement of a man. 
Our nation punishes the " pirate," who seizes a man in Africa and 
makes him a slave in America. It is a more atrocious act to thrust 
into bondage a man, who has braved .untold hardships and perils to 
regain his liberty. 

V. — The deed is not less atrocious and damning for being done 
by authority and according to legal forms. 

8. — Men attempt to justify slave-catching on the ground of 
necessity. They say, " It is a hard case, truly, and we pity those 
who are delivered up, very much; but it is necessary, to protect 
the property of our slaveholding brethren, and preserve our glo- 
rious Union." 

" So spake the fiend, and with necrssitt/, 
The tyratnVplea, excused the devilish deod." 

9. — Whoever, at the South or the North, denies to the slave his 
inalienable right to take his liberty and keep it unmolested, denies 
his own humanity, and knocks away the platform on which he him- 



14" THE SLAVE-CATCHER CAUGHT 

self stands as a freeman among men. If my brother in bondage- 
has not a God-given right to liberty, then neither have I, nor has 
the highest potentate in the land. 

XO. — " Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant who is 
escaped from his master unto thee. He &hall dwell with thee, even 
among you in that place which he shall choose, in oue of thy gates 
where it liketh him best. Thou shalt not oppress him." Deut. 23 : 
15, 16. Jehovah has settled this matter. Has my country given 
power to the slave-catcher to return the escaped one to a servitude 
a thousand times more rigorous and hopeless ? " O my soul, come 
not thou into their secret ; into their assembly, mine honor, be not 
thou united." 



CHAPTER IV. 



Slave- Catching in a Free State, under the Constitution and 
haws of the Union. 



The right to recapture fugitive slaves is said to be conceded by 
the Constitution ; it is sustained by acts of Congress, and by the 
judicial and executive departments. The provisions on the subject 
must be briefly stated. 

The pretended " Constitutional compact " is found in Article 4th, 
second section, third clause : — " No person held to service or labor 
in one State under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in 
consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from 
such service or labor; but shall be delivered up on claim of the 
party to whom such service or labor may be due." On this clause 
alone are professedly based all the laws and decisions which sanction 
the practice of catching slaves. 

The operative " laws in pursuance of" this clause of the Consti- 
tution, are certain judicial decisions, and the two Acts of Congress 
passed in 1793 and 1850, the latter being additional to the former. 

Fugitive slave-laws, or legal slave-catching powers and facilities, 
are necessary only in a Free State; because, where slaveholding 



IN THE MESHES OF ETERNAL LAW. 15 

is regarded as legal, no objection is made to the recapture of a fugi- 
tive slave by his pursuer. These acts, therefore, are made solely 
to compel the Free States to aid the slave catcher. And their in- 
justice and oppression are the more intolerable, because they oblige 
a people to admit and favor an abomination which they themselves 
had put away. 

The acts of Congress provide courts for the trial of a fugitive. 
But it is not deemed necessary that a pursuer employ any legal 
process whatever. The Supreme Court has said, that his slave is his 
'property, and hzmay take it wherever he can find it in the United 
States. Many do so, and they violate no law of Congress. Free 
men of the East, and the North, and the West, do you know that 
your whole domain is legally made open ground for the mid-night 
man-stealers, like wolves, stealthily " ravening the prey to shed 
blood, to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain ?" 

The act of Congress of 1793, which stands unrepealed, author- 
ized State magistrates and officers to act in these fugitive cases. 
The Supreme Court declared this part of the act unconstitutional, 
because Congress had not power to invest State courts with authori- 
ty. Yet the same court " entertained no doubt that State magis- 
trates may, if they choose, exercise that authority, unless prohibited 
by State legislation. " A very facile method, truly, of furnishing 
legal helpers for the oppressor. The result is, that some state leg- 
islatures forbid such action by their magistrates; some are silent; 
and others, I believe, require it of them. Thousands of State mag- 
istrates would spurn the work with contempt. Others perform it 
with alacrity, too patriotic to regard the cry of the innocent. 

The acts of Congress prescribe also two legal methods of secur- 
ing escaped slaves, either of which a pursuer may adopt when ho 
cannot steal his victim away slily, or when he has been baffled in 
such an attempt by opposition. The most sure and summary 
method is that prescribed in the tenth section of the act of 1850. 
Hi may prove his ownership of a slave and the fact of his escape 
before a State court in his own State. Then, producing a record 
ill it proof before a judge or commissioner in the State where he 



16 THE SLAVE-CATCHER CAUGHT 

finds the fugitive, and there proving the identity of the person ar- 
raigned as his slave, he is entitled to a certificate of delivery. The 
court is obliged to grant it, if it regards the act. 

The other prescribed method is this. The claimant may seize 
and arrest his alleged fugitive, with or without a warrant and mar- 
shal; take him before a United States judge or commissioner; 
prove to his satisfaction the ownership, escape and identity; and re- 
ceive a certificate, authorizing him to take the man back to bondage 
without molestation. He must pay moderate fees and expenses, 
and a special fee of five dollars to the commissioner if he loses his 
prey, or ten dollars if he gets him. 

If he then declares before the court that he fears a rescue, the 
court will order the marshal to provide a sufficient force, and con- 
vey the slave to his owner's residence at the expense of the United 
States. 

Other provisions of the acts of Congress will be named when we 
come to remark on their unconstitutionality. Other considerations 
are appropriate here. 

This clause of the Constitution, if it does authorize slave-catch- 
ing in a free State, is in itself a public confession that the Federal 
Constitution is liberal and just in its bill of rights; that slaveholding 
is sectional and not national ; that it is purely a local or municipal 
institution, necessarily confined to the jurisdiction of the State 
which gives it legal sanction. If slave-holding were in any sense 
national, there would have been no need of this special and ex- 
ceptional clause in favor of s\ave-catckinj. For, surely, slavehold- 
ing covers slave-capturing. If slaves could be held in Ohio or 
New York under the federal o-overnment, a Virginia slaveholder 
could reclaim his fugitive slave in either. 

This clause, so interpreted, is also a confession that fugitive slaves 
are not criminals, or fugitives from justice, and cannot be legally 
pursued and reclaimed as " persons accused of crime." The return 
of escaped persons of that class is provided for in the next preced- 
ing clause. Art. 4, sec. 2, clause 2. Accordingly, runaway 
slaves are generally claimed as "persons owing service or labor" 



IN THE MESHES OF ETERNAL LAW. 17 

Maryland, indeed, has recently enacted, that they shall be deemed 
criminals, and be claimed under the second clause; thus renoun- 
cing their dependence on the third clause, on which have here- 
tofore hung all slave-catching laws and prophets. But Maryland 
cannot at once incorporate this principle into the civil code of the 

Union. 

Concerning the acts of Congress we may here remark, that they 

extend this provision to the Territories ; whereas, the Constitution 
expressly limits it to States. In so far, therefore, the acts are void. 
Slaves cannot under the Constitution be pursued into a free terri- 
tory, whether Congress have organized a government there or not. 
They cannot be pursued from a slaveholding territory or the Dist- 
rict of Columbia; for slavery cannot be legalized in either, except 
by act of Congress, and Congress have no constitutional power to 
sanction it. 



CHAPTER V. 
The Acts of 1*793 and 1850, unconstitutional and void. 



Many eminent lawyers and jurists have declared the acts of 1793 
and 1850, especially the latter, to be unconstitutional in several 
respects. Lysander Spooner, in his " Defense of Fugitive Slaves," 
has shown this by a learned, logical, unanswerable exposition ; as 
he had before proved u the unconstitutionality of slavery" every- 
where in this country, in a work which might enlighten the 
most eminent of our jurists, if they would but study it. In pre- 
senting this part of the subject in a plain familiar way to the com- 
mon mind, I shall take the liberty to quote in substance his " sev- 
en particulars," advising every reader to ponder his full argument in 
his own work. 

1. — The acts deny to the alleged fugitive slave a trial by jury, 
that great palladium of liberty in every righteous government; a 
right which the Federal Constitution expressly secures to every 
"person" in " all criminal prosecutions," and "in all suits at com- 



18 THE STAVE -CATCHER CAUGHT 

mon law where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dol- 
lars." Mr. Webster affirms that " the reclaiming of a slave is not 
a criminal prosecution," and is " not a suit at common law." Mr. 
Spooner shows, by quoting the Supreme Court itself, that it is " a 
suit at common law." A slaveholder would not come for a slave 
valued below twenty dollars. The judge, therefore, who " delivers 
up" a victim without a fair trial by jury, tramples the Constitution 
in the dust. 

2. — Mr. Spooner shows at length that the Commissioners, au- 
thorized by the act of 1850, are not constitutional tribunals, or 
judicial courts. Horace Mann has also proved it unanswerably. 

A commissioner, therefore, says Spooner, "is in law a mere kid- 
napper, hired and paid by the slave-hunter; and every body has a 
right to treat him and his decisions accordingly." 

3. — The tenth section of the act is unconstitutional, because it 
requires a federal judge or commissioner to enforce the judgmen . 
of a State Court on two out of three essential points of testimony, 
(as we have before noted in chapter 4;) whereas, the Supreme 
Court evidently decided correctly, when thty said Congress could 
not confer judicial power upon a State court. That was a right 
judgment, although the same judicial court assumed legislative 
power, and said State judges might exercise the power of a feder; 1 
court in certain cases " if they choose." Posterity will be astound- 
ed when they read our perversion of constitution, and law, and 
equity. 

4. — The act of 1850 is unconstitutional, in that it allows the whole 
proof by the claimant to be made by affidavit alone; which is wholly 
an ex ^arte method, and denies to the defendant any opportunity 
to confront and cross-examine witnesses. Congress has also usurp- 
ed judicial power in violation of the Constitution, by declaring that 
a transcript of an affidavit made in Arkansas, produced by a per- 
fect stranger before a commissioner in Vermont, " shall be held and 
taken to be full and conclusive evidence" of ownership and escape. 
Then, the claimant satisfying the commissioner by affidavit of 



IX THE MfcSHES OF ETERNAL LAW. 10 

the identity also, the trembling victim must be delivered up with- 
out a hearing. If a iudire of his own will were to decide a case as 

Ibis act requires him to do, " he would be impeached." 

5. — The act provides : — "In no trial or hearing under this act 
shall the testimony of such alleged fugitive be admitted ;" thus 
giving one man the power of enslaving the other by his own word 
alone, while the court is forbidden to hear the accused in his own 
defence. A most unconstitutional, unjust, tyrannical enactment. 

6. — The act is unconstitutional in that it gives a claimant, in ad- 
dition to these extraordinary aids, the power to force through the 
sham trial with precipitation and secresy. The act requires, when 
an alleged fugitive is arrested, that he shall be M taken forthwith 
before such court, judge or commissioner, whose duty it shall be to 
hear and determine the case of such claimant in a summary man- 
ner." A mere tool of despots, called a commissioner, may issue a 
warrant for the sudden and secret arrest of a freeman, accused, no 
one knows or asks by whom, of being a runaway slave. Or the 
prowler may arrest him on a pretended charge trumped up for the 
purpose, or without warrant or charge. The bribed commissioner 
may sit in a secret chamber, at the mid-night hour, (well befitting 
the deed of darkness.) forthwith declare himself " satisfied" with 
the ex parte testimony of tl.e claimant, and surrender the innocent 
victim to his clutches. He shall decide in a summary manner; 
he shall not admit the testimony of the accused. Thus the whole 
business may be finished, and the poor man be deprived of the aid 
of witnesses, counsel and friends. Should a court decide an action 
of debt for a few dollars in this partial and "summary manner," he 
would be universally execrated. But thus has human liberty, in 
several instances, been already sacrificed. Does the Constitution of 
my country allow the Star-Chamber Court? Has my government 
established by law the papal inquisition? 

7. — In violation of an explicit clause of the constitution, Art. 1, 
Sect. 9, Clause 2, this act suspends the writ of Habeas Corpus, by 
which alone the proceedings of a "court, judge, or commissioner," 
could be reviewed and revoked. I know that the Attorney General 



20 THE SLAVE-CATCHER CAUGHT 

has assured the President, that this act does not suspend the writ. 
And it does not, perhaps., prevent a resort to this measure during 
the secret and "summary process' 7 before the commissioner. But 
when his decision is given, the law makes it final and irreversible 
by any earthly power. His certificate of condemnation and delive- 
ry is made conclusive of the claimant's right to remove the accused 
to his own State. And the act declares, that the certificate "shall 
jirevent all molestation of such person (the claimant,) by any pro- 
cess issued by any court, judge, magistrate, or other person, whom- 
soever. 

Besides these "seven particulars," in which Mr. Spooner shows 
by conclusive arguments the acts in question to be unconstitutional, 
I think there are several others, each of which will condemn them 
for the same reason, 

8. — Congress is neither required nor empowered to pass any law 
to secure the return of fugitives escaped from slavery. They have, 
therefore, assumed power without a shadow of authority, and their 
acts are void, the dictum of the Supreme Court to the contrary not- 
withstanding. There are three considerations to sustain this posi- 
tion. (1.) The Constitution makes no mention, in any manner, of 
the return of fugitive slaves, or even of their existence; a point to be 
shown hereafter. (2. ) Such power is not named among the powers 
expressly conferred upon Congress by the constitution; and such 
laws are not "necessary and proper for carrying into execution" any 
"other power vested by the Constitution in the government of the 
United States, or in any department or officer thereof." Art. 1, Sect. 
8. (3.) This famous clause, the only pretended constitutional au- 
thority on the subject, whether it have any reference to slaves or 
not, leaves the whole matter with the States respectively. The 
whole of Article 4th, consisting of 4 sections, relates to States and 
Territories, their rights and obligations, &c. The first, third and 
fourth sections provide expressly for legislation by Congress, to car- 
ry into effect the provisions named in those sections. The second 
section has three clauses, all relating to ])ersons going from one Stat e 
to another. The first secures to"the citizens of each State all theprivil- 



IN THE MESHES OP ETERNAL LAW. 2 I 

egesand immunities of citizens in the several States ;"a provision which 
is violated openly by the laws and authorities of South Carolina, and 
the sovereign State of Massachusetts seeks redress in vain for herself" 
and her fiee citizens. Her authorised agent, quietly preparing to 
appeal to the judicial tribunal, is expelled from the State by the 
1 sgislature and people. Yet I know not that legislation on that sub- 
ject lias ever been demanded or expected of Congress. The 
ond clause relates to <4 a person charged in any State with crime, 
who shall flee from justice, and be found in another State." 1 1 < • is 
to "be delivered up, on demand of the Executive Authority of the 
State from which he fled,'* that he may have an impartial trial "in 
the State having jurisdiction of the crime." The third clause is 
that in question before us, relating to the delivering up of "persons 
held to service or labor," who have escaped into another State. It 
leaves the matter wholly to the States and to each individual claim- 
ant. It does not lay any charge, or confer any authority, either up- 
on Congress or the Chief Magistrate. It looks to no legislation, 
state or national. Judge Hoadley, in a Habeas Corpus case at Cin- 
cinnati, Oct. 1851, had occasion to examine this question. He ar- 
gued, that these three clauses were thrown together in one section, 
because, being simply articles of compact between States, they na- 
turally associate together; — that they are all separated from the 
three other sections of the same article, because, although the 
whole article refers to matters relating to States and Territories, 
the other three sections expressly refer to national duties and ?m- 
tiona.l legislation, this second section has no reference to national 
interference in amj way. 

He concludes, therefore, that it belongs to the States, and not to 
the Federal Government, to secure to migrating citizens their equal 
rights, to return for trial fugitives accused of crime, and also to de- 
liver up fugitives from labor. Judge Hoadley 's argument is lucid 
and convincing, leading to the conclusion that, "in legislating this 
clause into execution, Congress has exceeded its proper powers.'' 
He also represents Chancellor Walworth of New York and Chief 



22 THE SLAVE-CATCHER CATJGHT 

Justice Hornblower of New Jersey as having- given the same 
opinion, and two Judges of the Supreme Court of Ohio as having 
publicly avowed their concurrence with similar views. Even a dis- 
tinguished Senator said, "He had always been of the opinion that 
it was an injunction upon the States themselves." Yet he was 
willing that Congress should assume power to make the most 
stringent law. "To the fullest extent" he would sustain the vested 
rights of his dear brethren, the oppressors of God's poor. Such 
are the rulers of this nation. Such are the principles on which 
they base legislative action. 

9. — An actual fugitive from slavery, being in a free state, is a 
"person," a free man, a citizen, by the constitution of that State and 
that of his country also. Now the Federal Constitution provides, 
that li no person'''' in the United States, "shall be deprived of life, 
liberty, or property tuithout due ])rocess of law. Amendments, 
Article 5. That is, a person arraigned must have an open, 
fair, impartial trial, accoiding to righteous laws and the estab- 
lished principles of jurisprudence in civilized nations. — Again, the 
same article and the 6th provide, that, "in all criminal prosecutions 
the accused" shall not "be held to answer unless on a presentment 
or indictment by a grand jury;" "shall enjoy the right to a speedy 
and public trial by an impartial jury;" — shall "be informed of the 
nature and cause of the accusation ;" — shall "be confronted with 
the witnesses against him;" — shall "have compulsory process for 
obtaining witnesses in his favor;" — and shall "have the assistance 
of counsel for his defence." Not one of these rights is secured by 
the acts of Congress to a person accused of being a fugitive from 
service. A commissioner may fulfil the letter and spirit of the acts, 
and yet deny them all, as not a few have done. The guiltiest mur- 
derer or pirate must have a fair trial; but these solemn guarantees 
of freedom and righteousness are scouted, when the "liberty" of the 
innocent fugitive is demanded in sacrifice to our American Moloch. 

10. — The infliction of "cruel and unusual punishments" is 
prohibited by the Constitution, Amendments, Art. 8. By the act 



IN THE MESHES OF ETERNAL LAW. 



2d 



of 1850, freeman may be reduced to slavery, who I itted 

no legal offence whatever; and this is a most "cruel punishment,' 
one ''unusual,'-' unparalleled under any honest government Here 
several important facts must be noted. 

(1.) — Is not the fugitive delivered up to a most horrible punish- 
ment? Such a doom is often more dreaded than death. A South- 
ern judge has recently declared on the bench, that slaves com 
of crime, prefer imprisonment for life to their condition on a plan- 
tation. Is not freedom dear to man? I9 not personal bondage a 
bitter cup? Ask him who has " no hope" <'f redemption from it 
except in the grave. Ask him who has braved the terrors of death 
and a pursuer's vengeance. Ask Patrick Henry. Ask any man 
but a slave-catcher, or his official jackall, or his Northern voluntary 
blooddiound. Ask your own heart. 

(2.) — But the slave has committed no offence by running away. 
True, the slaveholder at home deems his ofTencc unpardonable. If 
he catch him there, he flogs him within an inch of his life; But 
he dare not bring that charge in a Free State; and when conscience 
speaks, he himself knows it is false. Escape is no offence by the 
moral Jaw, nor yet by positive law. Neither by the Federal Con- 
stitution and laws; nor even by those of a Slave State. For 
<; where no law is, there is no transgression;" and a Virginia Sena- 
tor in Congress said; "lam not aware that there is a single Slate 
in which the institution is established by jwsitivc law" According- 
ly, no legal instrument is allowed to call escape a crime; neither the 
statute, nor the writ, nor the certificate of condemnation and delive- 
ry. And we have seen that the return of pei>ons " charged with 
crime," is quite a different matter by the Constitution, provided for 
in a separate clause. No, they drag away their victim to the most 
"cruel and unusual punishment," with a confession on their lips 
that he has done no evil "They gather themselves together 
against the soul of the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood." 

(3 ) — Thus tho destruction of innocent men is accomplished by 
a series of legal fictions, a measure which adds to the flagitiousness 



24 THE SLAVE-CATCHER CAUGHT 

and meanness of the deed. As we have seen, there is a non-de- 
script court, a mock trial, a fearful sentence and punishment, where 
criminality is neither proved nor* charged ; and all according to a 
law for this particular case specially made and provided. The 
whole is a subtle device, to secure the ruin of a freeman in fact, 
without outraging justice and equity verbally. So Mr. Webster 
could say, it "is nut a criminal prosecution," because in words it 
is not. Just as well might he say, it would not be a criminal pros- 
ecution, if a man had a trial on an action of debt, and were doomed 
to the gallows as a murderer. 

Now, therefore, what sort of action or trial is it? The same 
gentleman represents it as a mere preliminary examination, to se- 
cure the transfer of the fugitive to the state whence he fled, for trial 
there, where people better understand the condition of slaves, and 
where the 'courts are very impartial. He says expressly, " the 
courts [federal] of the State to which he has fled are not to decide 
that, intact, or in law, lie does owe service to any body." What 
then? Oh, only that he is a man, of whom somebody says, he 
owes service to somebody; and that " he is only to be remitted for 
remitted for an inquiry into his rights" in. the Slave State.* Ano- 
ther United States Senatorf " mightily convinced" the people of 
Chicago that a jury trial in a Free State is of no sort of conse- 
quence, since " the highest judicial tribunals in the land have al- 
ways held that a jury trial must take place in the State under whose 
jurisdiction the question arose, and whose laws were alleged to have 
been violated." — Now it is hard to say which is greater, the wick- 
edness of these assertions or their impudence. Did these distin- 
guished men and Presidential aspirants really think they could so 
impose on intelligent freemen? What are the facts ? Neither of 
the acts of Congress requires a re-hearing, or so much as hints at 
one. The certificate of delivery does not refer to such a trial, but 
" shall prevent all molestation" of the claimant in taking his victim 

• To citizens of Newburyport. 
t Mr. Douglas. 



IN THE MESHES OF ETERNAL LAW. 25 

back to bis domicil. No, when delivered up, lie is l doomed man 
and no earthly power can save him without the tyrant's consent. 
The certificate of a commissioner is like the laws of the Medes 
and Persians, « which altereth not,"—" a finality." To promise 
the condemned man a jury trial in a Slave State, is a cruel mockery 
of helpless misery ; as well promise to a condemned malefactor a re- 
view of his case, or an executive pardon, after ho is hanged. This 
is another of the legal fictions, by which innocent men are doomed 
as criminals, and the plain language of the Constitution evaded. 

11.— The act of 1850 blots out the 8th article of Amendments 
to the Constitution, by its inflictions upon our own native white citi- 
zens. u Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines im- 
posed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted." The act pro- 
vides, that a District Court, by indictment and conviction, may lay a 
fine of $1,000, and six months imprisonment, on one who shall 
"knowingly and willingly obstruct, hinder or prevent a claimant 
from arresting a fugitive, either with or without process ;" or who 
shall "rescue, or attempt to rescue, such fugitive from the custody 
of the claimant, when arrested;" or who shall "aid, abet, or assist 
such person [fugitive] to escape from such claimant;" — or who 
" shall harbor or conceal such fugitive, so as to prevent his discov- 
ery and arrest." " For either of said offences," such, freeman, is 
your doom. And if the claimant lose his prey through your aid, 
you shall " forfeit and pay, by way of civil damages, to the party 
injured by such illegal conduct, the sum of 81,000 for each fugi- 
tive so lost." No express fine is imposed by the act on one who 
refuses to obey the officers, when they "call to their aid the by- 
standers, or posse comitatus", but it "commands all good citizens 
to aid and assist in the prompt and efficient execution of the law," 
under the pains and penalties due to such refusal in other cases. 

Can human authority make an act of common humanity a crime? 
Even if one of these acts is " illegal conduct," is it not threatened 
with an " excessive fine," an " unusual punishment?" Shall gov- 



26 THE SLAVE-CATCHER CAUGHT 

eminent imprison you or me for doing an act, neglect of which 
would shut us out of heaven at the last day ? 

It would seem also that a marshal is liable to an " excessive 
fine/' or "cruel and unusual punishment;" — $1,000 to a claimant 
for "refusing to receive a warrant or other process when tendered, 
or neglecting to use all proper means diligently to execute the 
same;" and "the full value of a fugitive" that may "escape 
whilst at any time in his custody, whether with or without the as- 
sent of such marshal." — I would not object to this punishment for 
the sake of marshals alone. If men will ignobly assume an obliga- 
tion to do barbarous deeds, they may bear the penalty for neglect- 
ing them. I am, however, unwilling that my country should re- 
quire of its officers deeds at which humanity shudders. Besides, 
Congress would punish an officer for an act that is done " without 
his assent." On what principle is this legislation) Why, truly, 
on the principle that the alleged fugitive is to be kept in custody at 
every expense and every hazard. Therefore the agent of the gov- 
ernment is threatened severely, to compel him to sleepless vigilance 
and the employment of abundant force. It is a tyrannical measure ; 
and the instruments of a tyrant' s will not unfrequently experience 
the rigor of his arbitrary dominion. 

12. I name one more violation of the Constitution. Amend- 
ments, Art. 4: " The right of the people to be secure in their per- 
sons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and 
seizures, shall not be violated;" — and search warrants are not to be 
used or granted without a vigilant regard to liberty and personal 
rights. A stranger from the South, however, may "seize" whom 
he will, " with or without a warrant," by day or by night, openly or 
stealthily, the United States' authority and power sustaining the 
deed. I will not stay to prove that such a "seizure" is "unreasona- 
ble/' I only ask "the people" of every free state to bear in mind that 
they, their neighbors, and wives, and children, are by law liable ev- 
ery night to such " searches and seizures"; and they are required 



IN THE MESHE8 OP ETERNAL LAW. 27 

to submit, in order to sustain the vested "rights" of slaveholder* 
Will ye do it? 

We call the act of 1850 unconstitutional; jrel who lias begun to 

consider how many essential principles of freedom and righteous- 
ness it sets at nought ? But " if the foundations be destroyed, what 
can the righteous do V 



CHAPTER VI. 



The prevailing construction of the Constitution a false one. No 
National " guarantee" for the return of fugitive slaves. No 
"Fugitive Slave Act" in the United States. 



Thus far I have written on the assumption that the Constitution 
does require that slaves, escaping into Free States, shall bo deliv- 
ered up; and have proved, even if it be so, that the acts of Cono-ress 
violate the Constitution in many ways. That construction has 
been generally admitted both North and South; but is not sustain- 
ed by common sense, or by the established rules of interpretation. 
On the contrary, I claim that the famous clause of the Constitution 
has no reference whatever to escaping slaves; — that all the estab- 
lished rules of interpretation require us to restrict the meaning to 
hired laborers, clerks, apprentices, minor children of freemen — 
whatever persons are free, yet are "held to service or labor;" and 
that all legislation or actionbasod on the prevailing interpretation 
is without the shadow of support from the fundamental law. Rea- 
sons for these positions follow. 

1. No language is employed which constitutes a legal drscrij>tio>i 
of a slave. Not a single word which pertains distinctively to the 
condition, or relation, or disabilities of personal compulsory servi- 
tude; such as, slave, slaveholder, owner, property in man, belong- 
ing to a master, &c. The terms are simply these: " person held to 
service or labor under the laws" of a "State." 



28 THE SLAVE-CATCHER CAUGHT 

2. The members of the Convention well knew what terms to use, 
technical, legal, or conventional, to express their meaning explicitly 
on every subject. But they employed none pledging the States to 
deliver up fugitive slaves, or to restore that " species of property" 

3. It became them to be very explicit, if they intended to secure 
a privilege so abhorrent to humanity, so diametrically opposed to the 
bill of rights and the Declaration of Independence. 

4. Indeed, statutes, legal instruments, and above all the funda- 
mental law ought ever to be written, as this Constitution is, in the 
most unequivocal language 2>ossible. It is also held by all, that 
such instruments are to be understood according to the known, ac- 
knowledged, well-established use of terms; — that if any clause ad- 
mits of two constructions, that construction must be taken which is 
most favorable to freedom, justice and equity; — that that construc- 
tion is to be utterly rejected which is evidently against natural jus- 
tice and humanity, or which subverts the Constitution itself in any 
fundamental principle or leading object. — Tried by such rules, the 
clause in question utters not a syllable respecting slaves. 

5. The debates in Convention sometimes related to such a claim 
as slaveholders now set up; but history shows that the members ge- 
nerally shrunk from any recognition thereof in the Constitution, and 
that the chattel principle was nowhere asserted, implied, recogniz- 
ed, or alluded to in that instrument. 

6. The terras " persons held to service or labor," as Spooner 
clearly shows, include other %>ersons and classes, if they include 
slaves at all, and therefore they do not distinguish or designate 
slaves; and, as a matter of fact and of law, human beings are claim- 
ed and held, in a Slave State, not as servants, but as chattels or pro- 
perty. The pretended title can be no other under the Federal Go- 
vernment; but this clause does not assert or imply such title. 

7. The word "person" is employed in the Constitution; and 
that is never applied to a thing, a chattel, an animal, or a slave as 
such; but only to a human being, or other intelligence. In figu- 
rative language we personify even inanimate things, and apply the 



IN THE MESHES OF ETERNAL LAV,'. 29 

personal pronouns to the sun and moon, and to animals. But in 
legal and common language, a " person" is a human being. In 
this clause, therefore, it can refer only to one of " the people," by 
and for whom the Constitution was made, to secure to them the 
" blessings of liberty:" one from whom, however, in some lawful 
way " service or labor is due." Thank God, our national law docs 
not so much as imply, that the chattel principle can ever be recog- 
nized in our national legislation or jurisprudence. 

8. This liberal and just meaning of the word person is justified 
by the fact that such is its meaning and use in every other part of 
the Constitution. Everywhere else it evidently refers to the free, 
to men, to "the people of the United States." In this clause, 
therefore, it cannot be understood to designate a chattel. 

9. Even the act of 1850, spoken of universally as the " Fugitive 
Slave Act," makes no mention of a slaveholder, a slave-owner, or 
the property he has lost; — no mention of a slave that has escaped. 
Throughout the act, the pursuer is denominated a claimant, or a 

p>erson to whom service or labor is due. The other party is called 
a person owing service or labor, a fugitive from service or labor, a 
fugitive, or merely, a person, a fugitive, and a fugitive person. 
The word person is applied as freely to the defendant in the suit as 
to the claimant, and to the marshals and their assistants. There 
are but two phrases in both the acts of Congress, which can possi- 
bly be understood as designating slaveholder or slave. In the titles 
of both the acts, we find, " persons escaping from the service of 
their masters? But the word masters applies to many who are not 
slaveholders; and does not designate a slave-owner. By the addi- 
tional act, one who aids a fugitive to escape from his claimant shall 
pay, "by way of civil damages to the party injured, 81, 000 for 
each fugitive so lost, to be recovered by an action of debt." Hero 
is a squinting at a loss of property. This must, however, have been 
an oversight; for, after all, the man has lost only a u fugitive per- 
son," whom the law does not say or imply he ever owned as a chat- 
tel. 



30 



THE SLAVE-CATCHER CAUGHT 



Again, I remark, it is in vain to plead that Congress, in framing 
the law, meant slaves and slave-owners. They have not said it; 
and their language must not be tortured to make out a meaning 
they dare not express. I say, "dare not;" for it would be too 
glaringly inconsistent and absurd, to pervert the language of the 
Constitution in the acts pretended to be passed " in pursuance 
thereof." The language of these acts, and of all the legal instru- 
ments it provides for, is in harmony with that of the Constitution ; 
and the fire of slave-catching has no where sino-ed the hair of its 
head. 

We come, then, to these four conclusions: 

(1.) There is, in the Federal Constitution, no provision that ei- 
ther requires or authorizes the forcible return to bondage of fugi- 
tive slaves. 

(2.) There is not in being in the United Slates, a "Fugitive 
*> lave Act," providing for the recapture of slaves. I do not say, 
with some, that an unjust, unconstitutional act is not law; or that 
slaveholding and slavehuntino- cannot be legalized; for the throne 
of iniquity "frameth mischief by a law. 1 ' But I do insist that 
these acts do not, even in their terms, relate in any way to the 
catching of fugitive slaves. And we have no act that does so re- 
late. 

(3.) The fugitive slave law, so called, being unconstitutional, 
" the delivery of persons into slavery under color of them," says 
Mr. Spooner, " is a crime ," and the State magistrates, on applica- 
tion to theni, are bound to place the officers of the United States 
under bonds to keep the peace in this particular." 

(4.) The only right and safe course on the whole subject, is, to 
redeem our courts, and statutes, and Constitution from unparalleled 
perversions and abuses. This work the people must do, demand- 
ing the faithful concurrence of such as may be set in authority. To 
effect it, the people must open their eyes on astounding facts and 
fundamental poinciples; facts, to which we have become indifferent 
by long familiarity; — principles that are seldom thought of, because 



IN THE MESHES OP ETERNAL LAW. 81 

like the vital air and the blessed sunlight, they are all about us and 
ever with us. 



CHAPTER VII. 



Unparalleled Atrocities. General Remarks. Modes of Resist- 
ance and Relief. Appeal to the Friends of Liberty and of Man. 

In the summer of 1851, an intelligent nobleman in the heart of 
Russia taunted a clergyman from the United States on the atrocious 
character of our fugitive slave act, saying, " You can find nothing 
in the legal code of Russia, nor in the decrees of her Emperors, 
equal to that barbarous law." And truly, how can an American 
citizen lift up his head among the despots of Europe? For what 
nation ever legalized robbery, man-stealing and murder? What 
nation ever apointed oflicial agents to do the deeds of rapine for re- 
ward, and doomed them to «.ruel punishments for sparing the inno- 
cent? What government ever demanded that " all good citizens" 
become lawless banditti and midnight marauders, denouncing those 
as traitors to their country who refused to enlist? 

Consider, for a moment, some of the atrocities which this act al- 
lows, a few of the enormities of wickedness it solemnly requires the 
authorities and people to commit. (1.) It subjects the actual fu- 
gitive from bondage to the power of the most infamous ?nan-stealer, 
soul-driver, or perjured person, who may seizo him by stratagem 
or violence, and have him back to hopeless bondage. (2.) It grants 
to the man-stealer in this pursuit, the aid of this whole nation; the 
aid of our statutes, our courts, our treasury, together with the - 
utive, naval and military power of this mighty nation. And the 
National Legislature demands that " all good citizens" shall say 
amen. (3.) It offers to slaveholders, facilities, helps, inducements, 
and therefore strong temptations, to pursue those whom otherwise 
they might have suffered to go freo. (4.) It renders every man 



32 THE SLAVE-CATCHER CAUGHT 

woman and child in a Free State, black or white, liable to be kid- 
napped and dragged into bondage. The act knows no color or 
condition. It puts it in the power of any stranger, a villain, to swear 
that any person whom he chooses was and is his slave, and a com- 
missioner must be satisfied and deliver him up in a summary man- 
ner. Say not, " this will never be done." It has been done, gen- 
tle reader, and while you sleep, your son and daughter may be 
doomed to hopeless bondage according to law. Let every freeman 
be cautious about traveling where he is personally unknown. The 
time has come when we must all carry certificates of freedom in 
our pockets, and take heed lest they be stolen from us. Now let 
me " remember them that are in bonds as bound with them," since 
the rulers of mine own nation put me and mine in the power of the 
same destroyer. 

Is it possible that such an act is framed and executed in this free 
republic, in the middle of the nineteenth century? What motive 
can have induced the legislature and the judicial courts so palpably 
to pervert the bill of rights, trample on human freedom, and outrage 
the moral sensibilities of the nation? The only answer is, the 
Slaveocracy demands' the sacrifice. Their unrighteous domination 
and precious interests must be sustained, though the Union and the 
heavens fall. The whole system or practice is sustained, every 
where, by arbitrary might alone, at the sacrifice of every right. 
The despotism of the South demands that their sectional, tyrannical 
institution be nationalized; the servile North submits to the demand, 
bows down the neck, and begs that the peace of the Union may 
not be disturbed. This catching and enslaving of men by national 
authority and power, is a feature of slaveholding in entire harmony 
with every other feature of that abominable practice. The only 
difference is, that in this case the Slaveocracy have inveigled and 
bullied the nation into entire asinine subserviency to their arbitrary 
demands. 

In the operation, therefore, of this national law, behold the essen. 
tial injustice of slaveholding. Behold, also, the tyranny of a go- 



IN THE MESHES OF ETERNAL LAW. 33 

vernment, purporting to be the most liberal and just under heaven. 
What legislature would dare put the debtor so entirely in the pow- 
er of an offended creditor, with or without process of law? What 
community would endure a law which gave such facilities for the 
capture and punishment of one, suspected by somebody of being a 
thief? What judge could escape impeachment and ejection from 
office, who should deal thus summarily, partially and cruelly, eren 
with the vilest malefactor? The fact is, even-handed justice needs 
no arbitrary power, asks no severe enactments, and can afford to 
guilt itself the free use of all the safeguards of freedom and right 
Tyranny alone sets up arbitrary self-will for law, investigates in dark- 
ness, and decrees without regard to moral right. When, there- 
fore, the Congress of the United States makes, and the courts exe- 
cute a law of unparalleled severity, throwing out of the pale of hu- 
manity men whom they dare not declare to be criminal, they con- 
fess to unmasked despotism by those very deeds. And if men in 
power think they can innocently and safely commit such deeds, let 
them know that a free, intelligent, conscientious people cannot thus 
abjure every principle of freedom, equity and righteous government. 
Therefore, while the acting government, in all its departments, has 
become the most despotic aggressor, and the people as a body sus- 
tain the government, it becomes every individual living soul to in- 
quire whether lie is or can be clear in this matter. What have / 
done to plunge my nation into this guilt and infamy? What 
have / failed to do that might have saved her from the gulf? 
What shall /now do for her salvation? 

I. Consider, therefore, what the public exigencies require of pri- 
vate citizens. — I will judge no man's conscience. I will but an- 
swer for myself alone, and humbly ask the reader what good rea- 
son he can discover for taking any different course. 

1. I id ill render no voluntary obedience, to these enactments in a 
single iota. I cannot become a man -stealer, an oppressor, an inhu- 
man tyrant over my equal fellow man. I will not make myself the 
slaveholder's bloodhound, or humble tool. I will not be a partaker 



34 THE SLAVE-CATCHER CAUGHT 

in my. country's crimes, though she commands and threatens, and 
charges me with treason for obeying God rather than man. 

2. I will, as occasion may arise, transgress the law, and abide the 
consequences. I will feed the hungry, and clothe the naked, and 
deliver the souls that are drawn unto death. I will " hide the out- 
cast, and bewray not him that wandereth." The M outcasts shall 
dwell with" me ; I will " be a covert to them from the face of the 
spoiler." By every peaceful effort, I will even " resi-t the power" 
which has become "a terror to good works," and not "to the evil." 
This is not a new and heretical doctrine. Albert Barnes says of 
the early Christians: "There were cases where it was right to resist 
the laws. This the Christian religion clearly taught; and, in cases 
like these, it was indispensable for Christians to take a stand. When 
the laws interfered with the rights of conscience, when they com- 
manded the worship of idols or any moral wrong, then it was their 
duty to refuse submission. It could not be, and never was a ques- 
tion, whether they should obey a magistrate when he commanded 
any thing that was plainly contrary to the law of God." — Even the 
Slave State of Maryland has declared in its fundamental law: "The 
doctrine of non-resistance against arbitrary power and oppression is 
absurd, slavish, and destructive of the good and happiness of man- 
kind." I " refuse submission" to this iniquitous law, in whole and 
in every part. Its entire design and object are «' plainly contrary 
to the law of God." 

3. I will bear a public testimony, remonstrate, agitate, and put 
forth my efforts, till the obnoxious law shall be repealed, and the na- 
tion freed from the accursed system of oppression. — I know they bid 
me be silent. " The vexatious question is settled; the compromise 
is established; the periled Union is saved; the law shall stand un- 
changed, unless it be found too weak; the great parties have de- 
creed a finality ; and he is a traitor to his country who shall renew 
agitation, however, wherever, whenever it is done." — I hear the de- 
cree, but I cannot regard it. For many reasons, I cannot hold my 
peace. When a plain right is denied me, I will exercise it the of- 



IN THE MBSHES OP ETERNAL LAW. 35 

toner and defend it the louder. When I am bidden to neglect my 
duty to God and man, I will be all the more prompt to discharge it. 
And can I forbear to " open my mouth for the dumb, and plead fcf 

him that hath no helper 7 ?" No, 

"I cannot rest, 
A silent witness of tho headlong rage, 
Or heartless folly, by which thousands die. 
Bone of my bone, and kindred souls to mine." 

Nor can I be reckless of my own freedom, or that of my neighbors 

and my children, without forfeiting and periling the possession of 
the most precious earthly heritage. And finally, an alternative is 
before me. I must protest and toil against my country's doings, or 
I become a personal partaker in her foul oppressions. The act is 
passed and rigorously executed in my name, as one of the people. 
My hand, therefore, crushes my oppressed brother, and I "consent 
to the counsel and deed" of the immediate actors, unless I speak and 
my voice be heard; unless 1 act and my action be felt. Therefore, 
I will not cease to inculcate, in all my relations with men, the princi- 
ples of national righteousness, now so fearfully abandoned. A slave- 
catcher can never have my aid, or an advocate of slavery my Chris- 
tian fellowship, or a servile aspirant for office my vote. The Lord 
do so to me, and more also, if I thrust my hunted brother from my 
door, or lift a finger to help the pursuer, or sanction by word or 
deed, this infamous enactment. Let the united voice of the free- 
man of the North utter this sacred pledge, and the Bastile of op- 
pression will soon fall to rise no more. 

II. How can this nation retrieve the errors of the past in this 
matter, and cease from national oppression and injustice ? By 
what methods may the people and the constituted authorities re- 
lieve the country of the supposed necessity of sustaining slavery and 
returning the fugitives? This is the all-engrossing political ques- 
tion of the day, and will be till the work is done, with the people of 
the North, both from the nature of the case, ami from the manifest 
determination of the slaveoeracy to subjugate the whole Union to 



36 THE SLAVE-CATCHER CAUGHT 

its arbitrary will. From the evidently just principles we have stat- 
ed, it is easy to deduce righteous, peaceful, constitutional methods 
of relief; and they are various. 

1. We have seen that slaveholding is practised in the Slave 
States in violation of the Federal Constitution ; which, in its bill of 
rights, liberated all the slaves then being in the thirteen states, but 
was not suffered to take effect. Let the Constitution, then, be faith- 
fully interpreted and applied, and there will be no slaves left in 
the Southern States, or reclaimed from the Northern. 

2. But if they still insist that the subject was left with the seve- 
ral States, then leave it with them entirely and forever, and with- 
draw from slavery the national shield of sanction and support, in 
every possible way. If we, the people of the nation, have not the 
power to abolish it, we are under no shadow of an obligation to 
cherish it. 

3. Let the famous clause of the Constitution be acknowledged to 
have no reference to escaping slaves, and the obnoxious acts of Con- 
gress be repealed, as essentially iniquitous and unconstitutional. 

4. If it be still maintained that the clause of the Constitution re- 
quires the return of slaves, then either demand that it be stricken 
out by a regular amendment, or that it be declared by the people 
and the courts to be a dead letter, null and void. \\ e must come 
to this issue, if need be. A part of a constitution which stands in 
direct and palpable opposition to its fundamental principles, to its 
bill of rights, to its very objects and aims, must be regarded as a 
nullity. If it be carried into effect, the Constitution is subverted, 
the free government falls, regulated freedom dies. 

5. Tremendous responsibility rests in these times upon judges of 
federal courts, commissioners, and officers of the law. They can 
accomplish much for freedom and righteousness, even while the 
acts remain on the statute book. I am fully satisfied that they 
ought to take a decided stand; that even their oath to support the 
Constitution solemnly demands it. Nay, I believe every worthy 
judge in a Free State would do so if he were not " learned in the 



IN THE MESHES OP ETERNAL LAW. 37 

law" of misty precedents, pro slavery constructions, and traditiona- 
ry compromises with sin and Satan. 

Were I in office as United States judge or commissioner, when 
such enactments were spread on the statute book, I should elect one 
of three courses of action. (1.) One would be to resign my office, 
assign my reason to the President, and publish it, and let the office 
go begging till a fit tool of tyranny could be found to execute the 
laws in their letter and spirit. Or, (2.) I would retain office, and 
refuse to grant or receive a warrant on the ground that the acts on 
which the claimant demands a trial are unconstitutional and with- 
out force. Or, (3.) I might even hear a case, and determine it ac 
cording to law and equity, and the Constitution also. " With or 
without warrant," a claimant brings a person before me, whom he 
demands as one l: held to service or labor under the laws'' of ano- 
ther state. I require him to put his demand in appropriate terms. 
lie shall say whether he means slaves w r hen he says "persons held to 
service;" for I will have no sham suit, no double-dealing, no misno- 
mer. If he says, "Yes, I demand him as a slave," I dismiss him 
and his suit instantly, with a salutary warning against kidnapping; 
for there is no law requiring the return of a slave ; no statute or 
warrant so much as mentions a slave. If he says, "I claim not a 
slave, but a " person held to service," then I shall not hear any 
proof of his having owned a slave and lost a slave, for it would be 
altogether irrelevant to the case in court. And one is perfectly 
amazed to hear claimants and their witnesses and counsel talking of 
the slave that was owned, the slave that escaped, and the slave that 
is now identified before the court; also to hear a grave judge or 
commissioner listening to it, and weighing the evidence of owner- 
ship in the body and soul of a human being. It were ineffably lu- 
dicrous, if it were not a case of life and death with the helpless de- 
fendant No, I would hear only testimony to show that the M per- 
son owes service or labor under the laws" of a Slave State, accord- 
ing to the very terms of the statute and the Constitution. But the 
claimant cannot produce laws of his state holding the defendant to 



38 THE SLAVE-CATCHER CAUGHT 

service or labor due to him. He cannot prove a claim upon the 
person as a freeman, legally bound to service. He -will not attempt 
it, and I must dismiss the suit. Besides, if I heard a case, I would 
summon a jury, and give the accused all the advantages of a regular 
trial, a "due process of law." A judge who would thus magnify 
his office, would never be obliged to put the shackles on his fellow 
man. I believe he might occupy the bench a century and not be 
impeached. 

Were courts and officers true to their country and the law of 
God, fugitives would be as secure in our Free States as in Canada; 
and slave-hunters would no more show their brazen faces among us. 

III. It may be well to inquire here, what prohibitions or obliga- 
tions the Federal Constitution lays upon the States, as such, in this 
matter. Evidently, the only prohibition is, that a State shall not 
make any •' law or regulation," " in consequence of" which, a fu- 
gitive might " be discharged from such service or labor" as is "due" 
from him in another State. Of course, special laws for these speci- 
fic cases must be meant, and not the bill of rights, and those laws 
which guard liberty and the rights of men. These the States are sa- 
credly bound to preserve inviolate, and to see that they are effectu- 
ally extended to every human being that comes under their shadow. 
The u person held to service or labor," not a slave, M shall be de- 
livered up on claim, &c." The State must not hinder the delivery; 
but she is left to her own discretion, whether she will take an ac- 
tive part in that act. Even if she were bound to suffer a slave to 
be reclaimed, which can never be conceded, the Constitution pre- 
scribes no specific action for her, or her people, or her constituted 
agents. 

IV. Even if it could be conceded that the Constitution does re- 
fer to slaves, still the present statutes should be everywhere reject- 
ed as unconstitutional, for many of the causes assigned; and the 
three following points should ever be kept in view; viz : at the very 
worst, we insist that there must be a real fugitive, a literal escape, 



IN THE MESHES OF ETERNAL LAW. 30 

and a present claimant, or nothing can be done. Look at these 
points separately. 

1. A real fugitive. The fugitive demanded must have escaped 
in person. He or she must have been held to service or labor. The 
children of fugitive mothers, born in a Free State where their moth- 
ers have long resided, have been claimed, and surrendered, and en- 
slaved. They never were H held to service or labor," in slavedom ; 
and even the act of Congress cannot be understood to include them, 
The judges who have surrendered such persons, have manifested a 
servility entirely gratuitous. 

2. A literal escape, not constructive. " Escaping into another 
State." It is an act of the slave without the consent and against the 
will of the pretended owner. Formerly it was deemed sufficient if 
a slave were found in a Free State. No one inquired how he came 
there, nor was he allowed to say how. He must go back like a stray 
horse, or rather like a convict escaped from the penitentiary. At 
length some courts have had some return of common sense; and 
have decided that if an owner bring his slave into a Free State, or 
send him on business, or consent to his coming, then his claim is for- 
feited. If his man choose to stay here, there is no Jaw to compel his 
return. Such a decision is evidently just, and ought to be erery 
where understood and regarded. 

3. A present claimant. All the crushing machinery of the law, 
which we have noticed, is entirely without motion or power till the 
claimant comes in person or by authorised attorney, and sets it in 
motion. "Shall be delivered up on claim of the person to whom 
such service or labor may be due." So run also the acts of 1793 
and 1850. They authorize no one to "pursue and reclaim such 
fugitive persons," except "the person or persons to whom racfl ser- 
vice or labor may be due, or his, her, or their agent or attorney, du- 
ly authorized, by power of attorney, in writing, acknowledged and 
certified under the seal of some legal office or court, &c." Clear- 
ly, therefore, a fugitive cannot legally bo molested by any other per- 
son. A hundred slaves mav come from Kentucky and dwell 



40 THE SLAVE-CATCHER CAUGHT 

among us in Ohio. The whole community may know that they are 
escaped slaves, and may "knowingly harbor and conceal" them ; we 
may openly regard them as freemen, and help them ou to Canada, 
or let them dwell for years among us, as free as ourselves. So do- 
ing, we commit no offence, even against this diabolical law. There 
is no power, state or national, which can touch one of them until the 
claimant comes ivith his demand. Till then it is not known to 
judges, or marshals, or citizens, that they will ever be -demanded. 
They are not to expect such an invasion of human rights. They 
are bound rather to believe, that the disappointed Pharaohs will let 
the people go. 

I am not aware that any writer has presented this point for con- 
sideration. I think, however, every fair mind will acknowledge 
its pertinence and force. 

Now if this be so, persons concerned in various past transactions 
are more deeply involved in guilt than they are aware of. For in- 
stance, the mercenary wretches in Free States, who not only betray 
fugitives to actual pursuers, but notify them in the distant South 
and set them on the track; the officious traitors to humanity in Il- 
linois, who imprisoned a company without authority, and sent a 
notice to their "owner;" the lawyer in JS"ew York City, who used 
to advertise in southern papers for clients, who would employ him 
to hunt their runaways; the sheriff in the same city, who kept for 
months a long list of names with descriptions, and prowled about 
among the colored people, searching for resemblances; and, last not 
least, the United States judge, who laid a heavy fine on a "good 
citizen" of Pennsylvania for the constructive concealment of a fugi" 
tive — for hiring and feeding him before he was claimed. It is not 
strange, I concede, that men should riot in wickedness beyond the 
law, when the law itself abjures all righteous law. But neither 
party can cover the heaven-daring iniquities of the other. 

The Free States are false to themselves and to humanity, while 
they do not inflict exemplary punishment for deeds so atrocious 
within their several jurisdictions. Would this bring them into 



IN THE HI8HBS OF F.TEKNAL LAW. 4 1 

collision with the slaveocracy, and even irith the general govern* 
ment? Better contend with man, than with Him thai "shall break 

in pieces the oppressor." Bat tho north and the south are in col- 
lision now, and will be, so far and so long as the former maintains 
any itand for freedom and righteousness, aud the latter claims that 
the nation is obliged to sustain oppression and injustice. Lot the 
conflict continue. True men need not fear, contending for tl <• truth. 
Free States need not fear, having the Federal Constitution itself on 
their part, and tho law of God as their unerring guide. 

We do not deny to our southern fellow-citizens a single natural 
right ; not one of all that we claim for ourselves. We only insist 
that regulated freedom does not include tho liberty of oppressing 
others ; that we are under no obligation to aid them in such a deed ; 
that they exercise high-handed oppression upon us, when they de- 
mand our aid or connivance in the matter ; that no existing com- 
pact, no righteous constitution that can be formed, can impose the 
least obligation on the nation to sustain slave-holding or slave-catch- 
ing. We do not ask them to release us from their bonds. We 
assert our right and liberty to disobey and resist them. We will 
also faithfully warn them to do their part in redeeming our common 
country from guilt and infamy. Let them no more hunt fugitives 
in a Christian land ; but with alacrity and delight, "break every yoke, 
and let the oppressed go free." 

Alas, how long is this salvation delayed. Our second year of 
jubilee is drawing near, and the freedom trumpet is not heard. 
Despair settles down on increasing millions in bonds. Slave-hold- 
ers are yet more mad upon their idols, and have subjected the na- 
tion to their will. The wretched fugitive makes his way to the 
region of freedom, and behold it is all an open hunting ground for 
his bloody mouthed pursuers. This great nation builds him no city 
of refuge. A glorious free state can a(Tord him no asylum. Tho 
church bids him not flee to the horns of her altar. Some Quaker 
rebel may give him a shelter for a night; but the pursuer and the 
almighty law seize him in the morning. His Inst coal is .jutnehed ; 



42 THE SLAVE-CATCHER CAUGHT. 

his last faint hope has expired. He sinks to the earth, exclaiming, 
'/ looked on my right hand and beheld, but there was no man that 
would know me; refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul." 
give me a place in the grave, "where the wicked cease from troub- 
ling, and the weary are at rest" 

That man is my neighbor, my brother, a soul for whom Christ 
my Savior, died. Do I pass by on the other side, when I see him 
fallen among men-stealers ? Do I fail to do all that I can, to "rid 
him out of the hand of the wicked V* Do I "forbear to deliver them 
that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain? n 
"What then shall I do when God riseth up ; and when he visiteth 
what shall I answer him?" when he shall say, "Inasmuch as ye did 
it not to one of the least of these, my brethren, ye did it not to me.** 
O who shall "find mercy of the Lord in that day)" 



CONTENTS 



TACT.. 

Introduction 3 

CHAPTER I. Preliminary Remarks, Personal Freedom, Slavery, Right- 
eous Civil Government, Subjection, and its Limitations, 

Freedom in a Free State, in a Slave State 5 

CHAPTER II. Personal Freedom under the Federal Constitution and Na- 
tional Jurisdiction, No Slaveholding there allowed 8 

CHAPTER III. Slave-catching, Its Moral Principles 12 

CHAPTER IV. Slave-catching in a Free State under the Constitution and 

Laws of the Union 14 

CHAPTER V. The acts of 1793 and 1850 unconstitutional and void 17 

CHAPTER VI. The prevailing construction of the Constitution a false one, 
No National guarantee for the recapture of fugitive slaves, 

No "Fugitive Slave Act" in the United Stales 27 

'HAPTER VII. Unparalleled Atrocities, General Remarks, Modes of Re- 
sistance and Relief, Appeal to the Friends of Liberty and 
Man 31 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

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